Sepang embarrassment shows F1’s new generation of cars are not fit for purpose, writes JONATHAN McEVOY – as Max Verstappen lands first win of 2026 while Kimi Antonelli takes huge step towards drivers’ title

Something shocking happened in Sepang today . Formula One revealed itself as a sport that can only be contested in dry conditions, or, to be more accurate, near-dry conditions.

It’s a regrettable case of dodgy engines and shifty rules.

Before we get back to that, the brilliance of Max Verstappen – a champion for every climate – won the ‘Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia’ from Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli in second place, while George Russell, who had run third for so long, retired with an engine problem, his hopes of snatching the title sluiced away again. The Brit shook his head as he leapt out of his car, 84 points back from Antonelli – or a million miles – with seven rounds to go.

Lewis Hamilton took the final podium place for Ferrari, a fine drive by him through the field from more than a minute back after being put on slick tyres rather than the intermediates most of his rivals were wearing at the rain-stained start. That’s Ferrari strategy acumen for you.

But the subject of significant note here was that this generation of cars, with their half-internal combustion engine, half-battery power components, seem incapable of racing when the road is wet.

The software is off-the-dial complicated and the FIA admitted this had not been adequately tested in the wet. They launched a review on Sunday night.

The race was effectively delayed 1hr 33min to allow the track to partially dry, which underlines the point that this was one of the sport’s most embarrassing episodes since Indianapolis in 2005, when six cars started, to hoots of derision, because of concerns over the Michelin tyres at that great track.

This was almost as bad, if not as derided or as obvious. But, still, absurd.

The weather was poor but not awful 30 minutes before lights out, the rain short of biblical. Yes, we stood on the grid with umbrellas, and your shoes got wet.

I have been here in Sepang, an hour or more south of Kuala Lumpur, and seen the ocean fall out of the sky in other years. This was tame by comparison in an area of the world that employs folk to do the easiest job imaginable – weathermen and weatherwomen. ‘Humid today, stormy later.’ Take the rest of the day off.

Some afternoons you can almost drown by the Petronas Twin Towers as the deluge lands.

The half-hearted rain was never a reason not to get on with it.

Yet, that is how it was and no proper explanation was given for the delay at the time. The FIA later explained the software was being reset.

The shenanigans were a shame for the Bahrainis. They staged ‘their’ grand prix here as a result of the war in the Middle East, and in so many ways accomplished it with aplomb. Some 500 marshals and officials travelled from the Gulf kingdom, along with pioneering Crown Prince Salman, who masterminded the confection.

It was a well-organised home-from-home event in every aspect, down to the last detail, even if the journey by road to the track was slow, the traffic sticky. KL is a big city and that is how it is, no escape. The atmosphere, though, was good and no complaints on that front for such a hastily arranged event.

But the sport itself was a farce.

First, there was a 40-minute delay as the rain fell.

Why?

It is a fair question. Formula One has been held in rain all over the world across many years. Hamilton danced in it at Silverstone, in 2008. It was a defining moment of his career.

After winning seven championships, he does not recall every jot and tittle of his time in two decades, not every race, but he remembers that one. The conditions then in the Midlands of England were far worse than those on Sunday.

You turn back through the pages of history. For example, James Hunt in Japan in 1976, when he took the title and the immortal Niki Lauda pulled out, ceding the championship to ‘Master James’ claiming that to race on would be ‘insanity’.

We add Ayrton Senna at Donington in 1993. It was one of the drives that distinguished his extraordinary gifts.

Michael Schumacher was called the Rain Meister.

Verstappen, victorious on Sunday by two seconds, drove to the best victory I have seen live in my life in a near-monsoon in Sao Paulo, Brazil, two years ago.

Yet here the drivers sat kicking their heels in their garages while they awaited the call to arms. Finally, they were allowed a formation lap.

Several complained they could not accelerate, their cars basically hostage to their hybrid engines (and that damn ‘software’, whatever it is).

Pole-man Verstappen said he could ‘not move’. He later could, randomly picking up pace, but other cars momentarily broke down, including Hamilton’s red car, which for a few seconds sat at the side of the track. He then got going again. Others accelerated and then decelerated. Random stuff.

The race was red-flagged for 53 minutes, as the ‘software’ was rebooted. What does that mean? It seemed as if nothing could move until the track was dry. But, really, it was primarily a technical issue rather than a safety one. A bit of both, maybe.

This was a disastrous look. Fernando Alonso, the double world champion driving for Aston Martin, asked why the hiatus. ‘It’s racing,’ he protested. He was right.

Anthony Davidson, the former F1 driver who still acts as a test driver for Mercedes, tried to explain on Sky the almost inexplicable complexity of these wretched engines.

‘A lot of it comes down to the homework that should have been done before these wet conditions,’ he said. ‘A lot of it can be simulated.

‘What’s happening is if you are off throttle for too long, the turbo spools down and when the drivers put their foot back down it uses all the engine juice.

‘It’s all there to stop teams having traction control. It’s incredibly complicated and you fall into this horrible trap where the engine can’t reaccelerate.’

Do you understand that, folks? (Zero criticism of Davidson’s illumination is implied here.)

As for the race, Verstappen lost his lead but reacquired his advantage he was never to surrender on lap 13 after a poor re-start by Antonelli. All over.

Yet Antonelli, even though the runner-up on the day, commands a title race that has never taken off. Russell looks out of it.